Evil Geniuses pull off massive 2-0 sweep over PSG.LGD as TI11 Group Stage action heats up

North American powerhouse Evil Geniuses (EG) are looking like contenders for the Aegis of Champions once again after they soundly swept Chinese favourites PSG.LGD 2-0 in their best-of-two Group Stage match at The International 11 (TI11).

Both EG and PSG.LGD were seeded into Group A, dubbed the 'Group of Death' of TI11.

With such tough competition in their group, every win matters for these teams as they fought to be among the 16 squads advancing to the Main Event.

EG entered the match with momentum on their side, having swept regional rivals Soniqs Esports 2-0 in their first series of the Group Stage.

PSG.LGD's debut at TI11 didn't go as well, however, as they were forced to a draw by South American regional qualifier team Hokori.

PSG.LGD went for an interesting draft in game one, focusing on spread physical damage. Wang "Ame" Chunyu on Luna and Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida's Visage were the team's heavy hitters, while Zhang "y`" Yiping would focus on keeping the team alive with Oracle.

One of the defining characteristics of EG is that they focus on mitigating the damage the enemy team can dish out. Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko picked Enigma, a hero who naturally builds an early Wraith Pact to reduce enemy damage.

But the absolutely brilliant pick by EG was the support Sven for Tal "Fly" Aizik. Sven's Warcry provides nearby allies with bonus armor and movement speed. The extra armor is further improved by the Aghanim's Shard, which passively gives Sven an aura that increases allies' armor by seven.

All in all, Sven can provide his allies with 32 armor when needed, great against the chip damage from Luna and Visage.

The laning stage went well for EG due to Nightfall's ability to deny creeps and slow down Ame's farm. This delayed Ame's timing and gave EG the space they needed to play aggressively, which they took full advantage of in the mid game by bringing down four members of PSG.LGD.

It was a surprise to see EG handle PSG.LGD so comfortably in the first game of the series. One of the things that allowed EG to take the first game was the relatively poor performance by Ame.

The Chinese carry kept finding himself on the receiving end of EG's gank attempts and was rarely able to fight back.

Ame having five deaths with no kills to his name is unheard of and contributed significantly to LGD's loss. After dying three times in three minutes, Ame and the rest of his team called it quits in less than half an hour of game time.

EG went for an incredible teamfight lineup in game two, taking Enigma again for Nightfall and adding a Faceless Void on top of that for Artour "Arteezy" Babaev. Abed "Abed" Yusop also had Ember Spirit, one of his signature heroes.

Realizing that fighting EG head-on would be a fool's errand, PSG.LGD went for a highly mobile draft in order to evade their opponents and try to bait out their ultimates. Slark for Ame and Puck for Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang were the main playmakers for the Chinese squad in game two.

The early game of game two was nothing but sheer dominance from EG, as they kept getting kill after kill on PSG.LGD without losing anyone. When Ame and Faith_Bian grouped up to bring down Abed, Arteezy showed up with a fantastic deny and turned the fight around in their favour.

PSG.LGD only got their first kill after EG had already racked up 18 of their own. One of the reasons the North American team was doing so well was due to Nightfall's liberal use of Black Hole to ensure they secured their pickoffs.

However, using a long cooldown ultimate comes with a risk, as it means EG's teamfight is notably weaker when Black Hole is down. After Nightfall failed to kill NothingToSay with his ultimate, PSG.LGD realized they could take a fight and mowed down four EG players. It was a crucial turning point in the match.

After that fight, EG's hold on the map wasn't as impressive. While EG still managed to get pickoffs, they weren't as comfortable playing aggressively. PSG.LGD managed to shrink the gold advantage after that and began an impressive comeback, equalizing the networth between the two teams.

Despite that, PSG.LGD had to play against Chronosphere and Black Hole, two of the strongest teamfight ultimates being used by heavily farmed cores, regardless of the networth, EG would always be a threat.

The current Dota 2 metagame often saw games go late and get decided by a battle between the team's hard carries. This wasn't the case in game two, as both Ame and Arteezy were down when the final fight of the game happened.

A fantastic buyback from Abed sealed the deal for EG and secured the massive 2-0 sweep over PSG.LGD.

With their victory, EG now have a 4-0 record and will look to complete a perfect Day 1 record as they take on OG in their last match of the day.

Meanwhile, PSG.LGD drop to a surprising 1-3 record. They will be looking to bounce back in their last match of Day 1 against Soniqs Esports.

TI11 will be hosted in Singapore from 15 to 30 October and features a revamped format and a longer schedule.

The tournament will begin with a Group Stage from 15 to 18 October, where 20 teams will fight to become among the 16 squads to advance to the Main Event.

TI11's Main Event will be a double-elimination bracket and is split into two phases, the first being held from 20 to 23 October while the second will take place from 29 to 30 October.

For everything you need to know about TI11, check here.

Evil Geniuses roster:

1. Artour "Arteezy" Babaev

2. Abed "Abed" Yusop

3. Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko

4. Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen

5. Tal "Fly" Aizik

PSG.LGD roster:

1. Wang "Ame" Chunyu

2. Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang

3. Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida

4. Zhao "XinQ" Zixing

5. Zhang "y`" Yiping

Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.

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